


Maybe There's Hope

by serendipityxxi



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 13:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Booth could have said that might have changed Bones' mind on having children set circa early season 4</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe There's Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Disclaimed.
> 
> Author's Notes: Bones' sudden desire for a baby at the end of S4 really bugged me as it was so abrupt and out of character. This is my idea of what Booth might have said to start her thinking maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Brennan turned to Booth and even in the low light of the interrogation room he could see the sheen of tears in her eyes, making his heart clench. 

“I don’t understand,” she told him, her voice was low, intense, full of outrage and emotion others would never imagine she felt. Booth knew Brennan’s secret, she felt it all and it hurt her more than any of those who called her cold would feel. Even as he hurt to see her pain he felt privileged she shared this side of herself with him. 

“Why would you bring a child into this world when you know it’s so full of pain and suffering? When everyone lies and everyone leaves?” she asked brokenly. 

Their suspect had just been lead out of the room, her cuffed hands pressed protectively over her rounded stomach. The woman had confessed to murdering the man who had raped and impregnated her. She’d been their first suspect; the man had been her husband. She’d drugged him, bludgeoned him to death with a tire iron and then set fire to his corpse. Booth hadn’t enjoyed the interrogation any more than Brennan had, but he could see she was more affected

“How do you justify bringing a person into a world like this, Booth?” she demanded, her eyes bright with tears.

He felt a spark of panic as he realized she was waiting on his answer, waiting on him of all people to explain to Temperance Brennan the cruel inconsistent world. For a moment he faltered. He opened his mouth, sure nothing would come out, but then he found himself speaking because it was for her and the world had let her down enough. He wouldn’t do the same thing.

“You do it because you believe in making the world a better place, Bones,” he told her, locking eyes with her and putting all the belief he could muster into his voice. “If you don’t believe a better world is possible then what are we fighting for? Kids, they see the world with hope, they think they can change things. You raise enough of them right and they can. They can change the world, Bones, look at you.” He reached out and stroked his thumb across her cheekbone, drawing her gaze back to his when she looked away. “Look at the life you’ve created, all the people you’ve helped. Max and your mom they knew, the same way I do, that there’s gotta be hope for a better future and there’s nothing that creates more hope than kids.”

“It just seems so heartless,” she whispered and a tear escaped to course down her cheek. Booth’s thumb swiped it away. 

“It’s also beautiful, and full of love and laughter and grace. We see humanity at its worst a lot of the time but haven’t there been moments where the humanity shines through?” Booth asked.

Brennan thought, long and hard, she thought of Angela creating the louvre for Cullen’s daughter. She thought of Zach in a cell with his hands all but useless to him because Jack Hodgins’ life was more important to him than his own. She thought of Hodgins’ quiet bravery in the car when they’d been buried alive. She thought of Cam loving Michelle even though biologically she wasn’t hers. Most of all she thought of Booth in a thousand different situations, how good he was with victims’ families, how loving he was with Parker, how patient and kind he could be, those large sniper’s hands so gentle as they wiped the tears from her cheeks. 

Finally, she nodded and sniffled and Booth pulled her into his side, his arm a warm and comforting weight around her. She dropped her head on his shoulder and he pressed his cheek against the top of her skull. “You believe in the good, the humanity in us humans and you do your damnedest to make the world a better place for your kids in the meantime.”

Brennan nodded and didn’t say what they were both thinking: that the woman who walked out of the room just now had thought she’d been doing exactly that and maybe she had, but she would still be going to jail. She thought of Max and the things he’d done, to protect her and Russ. We tell the truth and we do not flinch, Michael had told her once. She wondered if this was flinching, wondering if sending a pregnant victim to jail was the right thing to do. Despair clutched at her heart, the dead man had been someone’s little boy too, before he had grown up to walk and talk and do terrible things. It was all so impossible to predict. Brennan felt a sob shudder through her and wished desperately to feel that hope Booth talked about, to believe in it. Booth squeezed her shoulder and rubbed his hand up and down her arm comfortingly. His lips were warm where they pressed to her forehead and she found herself sinking into his side a little more. Sometimes with Booth she could believe that hope would be enough. He was an incredibly good man and a good father. If anyone could make the world a better place for a child it was him. She reached out and tangled her fingers with those of his free hand. Maybe he would help her find that hope, he had already put her on the path to wanting to.


End file.
